Lies Become Us
by Tanis Ryuu
Summary: Dawn of the Dead spin off. Not too long and rather well worded, so you have no excuse to not read this grin R and R


Promises are just that: Words

Ahead, silhouettes just reach the blasting glare of the headlights. Their faces could not see beyond the bright beacons, therefore, those inside the vehicle are safe from detection…for now. The pursuers take monotonous steps, one mangled leg at a time. Always pressing forward. Always the same pace. Always hungry for someone more. Filthy rags hang from parched spots of bared skin. Hardly caring to clothe themselves properly as lust for affiliation is their morbid, devouring aspiration. A shift against his thigh pulls his eyes from the gruesome setting befalling him outside to focus his attention on the sleeper in his arms. Running until she could take no step further, he had carried her small body the rest of the distance to temporary sanctuary in his white 1980's step-side. Exhaustion furrows her brow as she dreams almost peacefully across his lap. Tears blackened by mascara have left a dark shadow from lashes to chin. He carefully pushes coal-blue strands away from her night-darkened face. However delicate the gesture is, the movement snatches the girl to wakefulness. Her blue eyes pierce into his kind, brown orbs and he forces a smile to splay across his lips. She jerks under his arms, but reality brushes the dreams back into their realm. He leans down to brush his nose against hers.

"I had the worst dream...i feel like i'm gonna throw up."

His face tightens up as she speaks, but the smile only fades slightly. When she returns his grin, he realizes _She doesn't remember what is happening…_A choking moan from a rot parching throatyanks her gaze along the glare of headlights. His hand catches the scream on her tongue and shoves it back down into her voice box. She chokes and struggles, panicking as a bad dream becomes nightmarish reality. Her body surges in terror beneath him as he pushes her back onto the seat and lays across her, soothing the girl with gentle, ever so subtle sounds.

"Stay quiet. Don't let them hear us."

He mouths, calm faced; inches above her horrified features. Fear filled tears begin to slide from the corners of her blue eyes. Any eye makeup is already washed down her cheeks, so the tears remain liquid crystals. The boy wipes a cool finger tip under her eyes.

_SsssssssHhhhhhh…don't fret, Precious, I'm here._

She looks up passed the boy's head and realizes the knob that locks the passenger door is pushed into LOCK and has been broken off at the surface. The only way to get in…or out...is tobreak a window.

"Austin, I'm scared."

She murmurs. The boy kisses her mouth lightly.

"Don't think about it,"

he mouths in return. Her face reads '_yea right' _and a familiar sarcastic smirk still surfaces. Even in moments before gruesome torture, she can still find humor in _something._ Austin presses his mouth to the corner of her lips resting his weight more evenly down along her body. He feels her quiver beneath him. Whether it is from fear or his touch, it's still pleasant to feel her reaction. _I love you…_he aches to whisper, but the threat is passing directly outside and detection would be too probable. Instead, he slides his arms up and down her sides, fingers catching every detail of curve and skin. _Don't let her think about it. Keep her mind here. Inside. Here. _Her mouth opens delicately and he feeds on her willingness hungrily. _Keep her here. Keep her inside of here. Stay with me, Angel girl. I'm here. Stay with me…_A moan aches in each throat, but hearing one right above them, outside the glass window startles both. She tenses, preparing for an unlikely escape. _SsssHhhhh. It's all right. _

_"_They're blind,"

he silently reminds her. White hands clutch the sides of his shirt as the girl's terror mounts. She can see out the window behind him, while Austin can see only her ashen face.

"Look at me,"

Austin catches her eyes by touching her trembling chin. _Look only at me. _He managesthe sameconvincing, calm smile. The corpse army outside couldn't take away what he and this Angel share. She swallows the urge to scream when a decrepid body rocks wildely on failing legs and bashes against the side of the truck. A mesh of fluids is left behind as the rotting husk moistly sinks under the hungry jaws of a fellow cretin. After devouring one of their numbers, the zombies latch thier mouths to the sludge on the window. Resolution crumbles. She cries...merely a whimper...and the beasts catch their scent. A hand enters the truck via broken glass and shattered window. Austin stifles her terrified outburst with his body. The arm surges, straight in and back out of the window. Razor-like shards litter his shirt, but she, at least, was protected from the forced entry. Black blood oozes freely out of dark lacerations on the intruder's queasy creamed flesh. It seems unfazed by the inflictions and continues to feel around maniacally for the insiders. Its gnarled appendage passes appallingly close to the back of Austin's head, but neither zombie nor person realizes this. A second sob escapes from her throat and out into the open. Austin brusheslong hair away from her mouth, thenkisses her quiet, but this noise is enough to start a chorus of moaning howls from Hell's spawn surrounding the step-side. Both passanger and driver's side windows are demolished.Varying degrees of rotted armsburst through glass as though the window is a vertical sheet of water. The fore and aft windows are still intacked, though, seeing as how these creatures, half men, are not coordinated enough to scale the into bed or onto hood of the white truck. She clutches tighter to Austin as the moans become shrieks of impatience. The lover'skiss becomes a desperate cling to life and they stare, horrorstruck at one another. The beasts begin rocking the truck from side to side in their obsession to get inside. Fear. Internal anguish. Complete panicing terror isconsuming the girl. It istoo much to face.Austin dodges hands, as he sits up with a plan"Z"idea. While fending through gnarled, chalk encrusted hands, Austin kicks free the emergency brake. The truck lolls slowly forward, tearing off the inserted arms with shreds of broken windows. Screaming and shrieking, the crowd slowly plods after the truck as it gains speed, headlong, down the grassy slope.

"Get on the floor!"

Austin obliges his own demand and shoves the girl onto the floormat. He hunkers down over her under the glove compartment and braces himself around the girl's body.

"Why don't you get up and steer?"

The boy's dim gaze speaks for himself. ItHe assumes thatwouldn't do any good where they are headed. She remembers too vividly the immense struggle up the wet, slick slope to get to thistruck...the final safe haven. She remembers the rocks leading down to the edge of the world. She remembers the sharp wind that sharply stung and forced the couple shakily closer toward the ledge. With sickening justification, she remembers the toppling current of the ocean below the cliff. His eyes are too accepting of what he has just condemned them both to undergo. They would drown. Death was inevitable now. Back at the top of the hill, theenemy weas merely rushing against the truck. They had had a chance of survival at the top of the hill! Was she so tired of running now that she would rather give up and die at the pivital moment? No. She was not ready to die yet: not this way! Not to give up. Her anger launches him off of her. She forces herself back up onto the seat.

"What the Hell are you thinking?"

"I'm not ready to die yet...How can you just accept it this easily?"

The key is not in the ignition. Newton's law carries the truck downhill more rapidly with each rotation of the wheels. Would the impact be a sweeter end than at the hands of mindless mobsters? Was her will to live futile after all? Never. Headlights had drained the battery:even with the keys,the truckwouldn't have started anyway. Thus in place, the steering wheel is locked. Her eyes burn into the boy sitting on the floor mat. He has his complacent head resting against the glove compartment.

"Where are the keys? Did you put them in the Glove Box?"

"No. They're in my freakin pocket."

In an instant, the truck jostles them gruffly. During their decent, the half tun is reacting to the boulders littering the base of the slope.The girl leans over and snaps open the glove compartment, hitting Austin in the face with the door. Nothing but papers rustleingand his complaints are the only sounds. The truck has left the ground completely, landing with such force, the girl is airborn, then slammedforward into the dash board. The boy graps her and pulls her against the seat. Her eyebrow is flowing crimson...plastering the side of her face in blood. She forces him away from her. The papers consisting of Liscense and registrationweredislodgedin the jump, so the girlcan more easilysearch for any sort of hope.

Therehopelies in the pit ofending.She grips the pistol in her dry hand. The boy cringes.

"Do you wanna drown or get your brains blown out?"

She asks him...a little too controlled. The pistol is cocked.

"What are you playing at! This is nuts...What are you thinking!"

"I'M NOT READY TO GIVE UP YET! and you made that choice for me. I don't want to die yet!"

"Then you could have shut up back there! You made them attack the truck..."

Her eyes are ferocious. She points the gun at his face. The barrel is so close to him, Austin can smell the steel.

"We made a promise to never give up...NO MATTER WHAT!...you've sentenced us to Death. You're murdering us!"

"Is death or transformation through THEM preferable!"

"We could have gotten through that! We could have beaten them. But you gave up on me...why?"

Why?

Why...indeed.

The vessel never meant to flysoars off into the overcast, cloudless night sky. It careens below the horizon line, and is lost to view in the gray below the edge of black where sea meets sky.

Why Indeed


End file.
